Puerto Rico's Fossil Fuel Doublespeak
Puerto Rico knows how bad the climate crisis is going be for its population, yet it continues attaching itself to the fossil fuel industry.
Last week, I broke the story that Puerto Rico was voluntarily dismissing its lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry.
If you've followed Heavy Weather for any length of time, you know I've been a little obsessed with Puerto Rico's climate lawsuits because of how clear-eyed they are about the ways anthropogenic climate change has ravaged the archipelago and who is causing the carnage:
As a result of the lies and deception of the Defendants and the fossil fuel industry, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has incurred or will incur billions of dollars in costs to clean up climate change-induced disasters, such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and is anticipated to suffer additional substantial even more costly, damages in the future.
The billion dollar lawsuit was dropped late last Friday after the Trump administration started going after states' filing climate lawsuits and an industry front group sent a strongly worded letter to Republican Governor Jenniffer González Colón.
According to her head of public affairs, the lawsuit was dropped because Puerto Rico needs to "be aligned" with Trump and his energy politics because they can't take the risk of not falling in line with the White House and being a target for retaliation.
What the administration doesn't say in its justification is that the archipelago is already subservient to fossil capital, at great risk to the safety of its citizens. Blackouts are expected to quadruple this summer when compared to the same time last year. However, according to request for proposals to expand energy generation, methane gas is being given much higher priority over renewables, which studies have shown Puerto Rico could thrive with.
